This is one weekend where my husband and I will be on the same side, wanting the same team to win the games between the Rangers and the Dodgers. My husband needs the Dodgers to sweep the Rangers so his Angels will have a better shot at getting closer to the 1st place team of the AL West.

Howdy JOSH, how ya’ll doin’ in Texas? Thanks for the line up and everything else…YOU WILL SOOOO BE REMEMBERED DURING THANKSGIVING! But it is great that most the POPS were able to be in TEXAS an spend time with our boys and cheer for our BOYS. The DADS played a big role in most of our boys baseball career, they deserve to be there…I know, I know MOMS did too. The line up looks great! Ya’ll have fun touring the COWBOYS STADIUM. HIPPY-YAY-YEY DODGERS, ROUND UP THEM RANGERS AND SEND THEM CRYING TO THEIR POPS….GOOOOOO DODGERS!

cpompe, i’m sure your hubby will be cheering hard for the dodgers.. i saw a friend on campus today and he’s an angels fan.. and he told me that we were rooting for the same team this weekend too.. haha

Torre must not hate MATT KEMP if he is the 3rd Bubble Head for this season….GOOOO KEMP!
By msrussyethier on June 12, 2009 2:52 PM

No Rose, I’m not calling YOU a “bubble head” – I hope you didn’t take my last comment that way (although in re-reading it, it does sound kinda bad). No, I was referring to you comment on Kemp!!! No, neither you nor Matty are “bubble heads!”

True sara, at least we don’t have to worry about him being benched for Slappy like we used to have to do. I guess Joe just realizes things slower then the fans…kinda like how it took him forever to realize Mark Sweeney sucked. 0-20 with RISP and 2 outs!

True sara, at least we don’t have to worry about him being benched for Slappy like we used to have to do. I guess Joe just realizes things slower then the fans…kinda like how it took him forever to realize Mark Sweeney sucked. 0-20 with RISP and 2 outs!

True sara, at least we don’t have to worry about him being benched for Slappy like we used to have to do. I guess Joe just realizes things slower then the fans…kinda like how it took him forever to realize Mark Sweeney sucked. 0-20 with RISP and 2 outs!

CPO….LMAO…Matty is far from being a bubble head…but he is a BOBBLE HEAD…..OOOPS. NOPE not from LONE STAR STATE I just watched to the MINI SIRLOIN BURGERS commercials one too many time and Spongebob (which I do not like, but kids love)

Yeah Dodge, I was watching that game. Lousy base running and then he brings his hitting woes into the field! I mean, those plays were bad. I know it happens, but at the major-league level? I’m just glad that Bradley isn’t with us anymore. Heck, we got a MUCH BETTER RFer in exchange!!!

But Sara, I forgot to tell you before. Tonight is the night that my husband won’t be watching the baseball game much. He is a HUGE hockey fan, and tonight’s the 7th game of the Stanley Cup Finals. He’s not crazy about either team, and he can’t stand the Red Wings, but it’s the last game. He wouldn’t miss it.

As far as Milton Bradley – yes, we got an awesome trade for him – no doubt about that as my niece is walking around my house with her Ethier practice jersey she got the weekend they were giving those away.

Yes Nelly, we DID get an awesome trade for Bradley!!! The BEST trade that Ned ever made!!! Okay, I’ve said my piece about any possible future trades, so I’m not even going to broach that subject right now…

As far as the trading, I know our young guns will not be with us forever. That’s just not thinking logically anymore. It’s sad but just a fact in how this sporting industry works now. However, when the time comes there are definitely certain ones I will keep an eye on once they are no longer Dodgers.

It would be nice to see our “Young Guns” stay together and retire as Dodgers, wouldn’t it NellyJune? Kind of like bringing back the old tradition of staying with a club, retiring from that club, and then working for that club in some capacity. Oh well, it’s only a dream!

Hi everyone
I haven’t posted for a while I suppose because I just didn’t want to hear anymore on the Manny thing. I am back. I did read ITD but didn’t post. I miss everyone and now that the dust has settled, I will stay. I have been out of town and missed two weeks of Dodger games but will be back for the next homestand and hope to meet everyone for the ITD tour.
I am really happy about Matty’s bobblehead. He and James Loney are deserving of the honor. Hopefully James will be next. Those two are nice to Dodger fans. They always go out of their way to say hi to me and let me know that they remember me. That is so cool. Andre also is at the top of the list for being nice. That goes without saying.
Hi Rose, tru blu, Nellyjune, Cpompe1. Hope everyone is well.http://catlovesthedodgers.mlblogs.com

ahh stanley cup game 7.. yeah, hockey is one sport i definitely don’t watch.. regardless, good luck to both the pens and red wings..

aeversw, i always think joe is slower than the fans.. either that, or he’s just way more forgiving.. i don’t know if that’s good in a coach.. the players probably love it (well at least the ones he supports the most) but it drives most of the fans mad..

the texas rangers are actually quite a good little team.. i don’t think it’s a fluke that they’re in first in their division.. their pitching tends to give up a lot of runs.. but they can hit and hit for power, which is why they still win games.. nelson cruz and hank blalock are both on my fantasy team and they have tons of power.. not to mention that there’s kinsler, michael young, chris davis.. etc.. oh yeah, and we’re paying andruw jones to contribute to their offense.. should be a fun weekend.. hopefully our pitching can contain them.. and if we give up bombs, hopefully they’re solo shots..

Trublu, on the positive side, if he keeps hitting it hard like he has, the majority of the time it will go his way. With the era’s that I saw for the Rangers pitching in this series, I agree with boblee, they should be hitting them hard.

I lived in Houston for 2 years in high school, sparkleplenty and they do have some intense storms in TX. I remember being on the freeway many times where it would start raining so hard I couldn’t see the car in front of me. Sometimes you would have to come to a complete stop until it let up.

I just wanted to point out to everyone the obvious… We’re becoming eerily similar to our first half of last year team. We’ve been having WAY too much difficulty scoring runs!! This has got to stop, or we’re just going to going to kind of flounder until Manny gets back, I know it’s only a couple of weeks, but I’d be curious to see out risp batting avg. has been over the last couple of weeks!!

Hey trublue! How are you… I suppose we havent lost 3 straight all year… But it’s almost like they’re all in a funk at once. The team really hasnt had to face a losing skid yet… Hopefully it does not happen now… Then again, we’re pretty much the worst interleague team of all time

I am really getting pissed at Martin. How many RBI’s does he have for playing practically every game? How anybody can give him a vote on the All-Star ballot, I’ll never know. Let’s bring up Ellis to give him a little competition, and hopefully we can then ship Martin out somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine. Toronto would be good too.

I think the play on Ethier’s potential double and that play on Loretta really killed the 2 best chances to get back in the game. I still believe this lull is only temporary and they’ll bounce back soon. Even the best teams go through rough patches during a long season and the Dodgers are still one of the best teams, even without Manny.

There’s another falacy – Loretta as DH. Compare that to Blalock. I know that Joe want Loretta to get some extra swings, and he’s still somewhat better than Sweeney, but DH should be a guy who can swing the stick and drive the ball a far piece. That’s not Loretta, and I hope we try something else tomorrow and the next day.

What a tough game that was to lose. Not only did we lose, but with the exception of SanDiego, all the other teams won in our division. San Diego just happened to play the dbacks so somebody had to lost that one. The gnats got the easy end of this deal. They are playing the last place team while we are playing the first place team in the AL West Division. However, the gnats do have to play the Angels starting Monday, and we do get to play the A’s as well. Well, we still have 2 games we can win and get this series, and there is no reason to believe we can’t do that. Yes, our bats need to come alive at the right time, and we just had a couple of tough breaks that went Texas’ way this time. Hopefully tomorrow will be our turn for the lucky breaks.

brandon – It was great to see your name on here again. It’s been along time, and I hope all is going well for you out in Las Vegas.

messagebear – I was over at tru’s house reading your comments, laughing and saying messagebear is pissed.

bluecrewgirl – Andre got robbed on that caught line drive because normally those are smoked right passed the first baseman and he is standing on second with a stand up double. He had a good night I thought……two walks, which he and/or O-Dog easily should have scored a run with he and O-Dog both on 2nd and 3rd twice. Even on that line drive, he worked the count very well.

As for the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup. I think it would be great if the Pirates could at least win their division. Then you would have all three major sports(Steelers, Penguins and the Pirates) in Pittsburgh having won something in the 2009 season…….all sporting the same colors………………….black and gold. You notice how I didn’t say win the World Series because that would have to be the Dodgers with the colors of Dodger Blue and White I am afraid.

I think it’s time for Torre to do a few things…in no particular order:
1) Close the clubhouse to the media and remind his players–with a few expletives thrown in for emphasis–that there are 100 games left and it’s time to stop coasting.
2) Quit reinventing the line-up every three minutes and let these kids settle in. Joe makes me more nervous than caffeine with his endless shuffling.
3) Play more situational little ball…jump-start this dead-a** team already.
I think it’s time for Martin to do a few things…in no particular order:
1) Sit for a few games.
2) Get back on the juice, because it sure as hell looks like he’s lost something.

Well, crappy game last night. Only 17 more games till Manny is back. I think Torre should sit Martin for 10 days to see if he decides he wants to be the catcher he was 2 years ago. He’s hurting the team. I think pierre should sit and bring up mitch jonbes as we need power, not Pierre’s lead off. We can have Furcal go back to the lead off spot.
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We have scored 25 runs in the last 10 days or 2.5 runs per game. We’ve been shut out 2 times scored only 1 run 2 times and scored 2 runs 2 times. This is not going to get it done against these American league teams and we play them 14 more games befor going back to the National League. Can you see where this is going Mr. Torre??????

Good Morning ITD, Dodger Faithful
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I want to try and start off on a positive note here so….. Congratulation’s to the Broxton family on their new addition.
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I had the chance to watch the game last night well at least the first 7 innings,( True had a dinner party ) , as I am at Nelly’s house for a bit. They are some really wonderful people. Kuroda I thought did a decent job, and we had our chances early to give him some runs and just couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity. We have’nt lost three straight all year and I dont want to start now, however winning the third game to keep that from happening is a trend we need to change. We need to get some of the intensity back that we had earlier in the year. I would like to see the opposing team and especally the pitcher worried when facing our offense. Last night the Rangers pitcher had a high pitch count early and we let him off the hook. That is not the ballclub we have been watching play this season, the one that has given us the 7 game lead.
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IT IS TIME TO SHAKE AND BAKE BOY’S!!!!!
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I want to see some confidence and fire back in this club, I want everyone excited to get a win at the end of the night. I’m not saying we need a walk off celebration after the game, although there is a lot of good emotion in those, but the high fives and geniune good feel that comes in happiness as a team needs to return.
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It’s a good time to put together a win streak so…..Lets stand behind the Wolf Man tonight and give him some help.
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GO DODGERS!!!!
BRING THE RING TO L.A. IN 2009!!!!!!
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ROCK US BABY!!!!!!!!!
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4OXrmxDp44
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LETS GO BOY’S !!!! WE ARE STILL THE TEAM TO BEAT LETS PLAY LIKE IT!!!!!!
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Enjoy your Saturday everyone :)))

Yes, boblee – you would expect Torre more than anyone to know how to play the AL teams with the DH, but wasting that slot on Loretta is incomprehensible to me when the competition uses their slugger in that situation. We don’t have such a guy on our team, but even using Hoffmann would provide some power potential. If we’re playing with the DH rule for another 14 games, as you point out, maybe we should bring that kind of a power guy up at least for that duration. I also agree with you that Martin should be sat down for a couple of series not just the occasional game, because this guy’s got some serious issues about what it takes to be in the major leagues and to stay there. Of course, to Torre he seems to be irreplaceable, and I seriously question that as well.

Hard to really tell, but judging from the Times article this morning, a lot of the team remains unconcerned about lack of production. ??? I know it’s hard to remain focused all 162 and the lead looks big right now, but this is starting to look like a lack of professionalism or some other big word. Maybe this is what bugged Jeff Kent. I expect to hear from Bowa soon. I had originally thought it was because Juan and O-dog were not getting on base as often. All of the homers we have managed to get lately have been with the bases empty. But it does seem to be more widespread than just that.

The lead is great, but it is only six games in the loss column against the Giants, who hardly have a superior kind of team. Their pitching is probably at least as good as ours, and their team apparently does well enough offensively. I know we all expect that Manny will make a big difference when he gets back, and maybe he will. It’s no time to get into a panic mode, but the casual attitude of the team and manager do make me uncomfortable. There is a long way to go, and nothing is guaranteed. I think that Torre is too lackadaisical with some guys who’re not pulling their weight. I don’t see Bowa getting into the face of some people who need it. It might be too late when one of the other teams pulls up even with us and looks us in the face. Much as we all love the young core of players, we probably realize that in today’s game they’re not all destined to remain together with the Dodgers. One or two maybe don’t even belong in a team mode and just figure that they have it made now that they’ve been in the majors for a couple of years. I’d like to root out that kind of complacency, assuming that my take on it is correct. That should be up to people like Torre and Bowa to sort out.

Good morning ITD! Can’t stick around as there’s too much to do, but I wanted to contribute a little.

I thought Ethier’s return to slugging would spark the team, but that obviously was wrong.

Torre needs to move Kemp up, but not just one slot. It doesn’t make any sense at all to keep him down in the lower half of the lineup.

The top of the lineup is killing us right now. Pierre is still slumping and now Hudson has joined him. Torre will never rest them so they need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and fight their way out if we’re going to score. Our run production stinks lately.

“Andruw Jones said the main reason he asked the Dodgers to release him this winter wasn’t his desire for a change of scenery. He said he asked out mainly because of the way he was treated by Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.”

“He wasn’t standing behind me, I think,” Jones said, adding that if McCourt had shown him more respect, “I almost definitely would be part of the L.A. Dodgers right now.”

“As things were going along, I didn’t think I was in their plans”

“Jones said he started to get the sense that he was on his way out of Los Angeles when he met with McCourt before undergoing knee surgery last May. “It was disrespect,” Jones said of the way McCourt spoke to him.

Oh……my……GOD!

Is he that stupid, or is this just another example of today’s pampered athletes thinking?

Mr Jones, you are the poster boy for the case for performance clauses. I do not wish you good luck, just good riddance. And shut the hell up. You stink. You got your money. If you come to the plate in this series, I hope you get drilled.

The ultimate form of disrespect is taking millions from an owner and then showing up looking like the Good Year blimp.

Kept hearing last night (to my horror!!!) the Dodgers dismal road record against AL teams since 2003. Guess it stands at 5-28 now. Of course, Jim Tracy and Grady Little get to claim some of that little prize.

messagebear, I think you’re being a bit too kind to Ned and Mr. Honeycutt to say the Giants pitching is “at least as good as ours.” Just looking at the starting staff, I’d say Giants’ pitching is A WHOLE LOT better: Cy Young winner (Lincecum) as #1 starter, Cy Young winner (Zito) as #3 starter, Cy Young winner (Johnson…5 times) as #4 starter. Granted, Father Time has taken a toll on Johnson, maybe even Zito, but they’re still both effective. Throw in Cain, and which starting staff do we want? I’ll take Biullingsley all day long, but Hiroki “Porcelain Doll” Kuroda…Randy “Small Game” Wolf…Clayton “I’ll-Figure-It-All-Out-Someday” Kershaw???? Can you tell I’m a bit bitter this morning?

Good morning ITD boys and girls!
Okay, okay, last night’s game was just atrocious. Hiro kept us in the game for a little bit, but like so many other of our starters (and I know we’re just sick and tired of hearing this) Hiro couldn’t give us many innings. I still think that a trade for a quality starter is in the stars for us. I don’t see anything to get around that. Again, I could be wrong, and I’ve been wrong many times, but I don’t think I am. It’s just a matter of who we get, and who do we give up to get that arm.

That article on Princess Druw just wanted to make me puke. He should be thanking his lucky stars that (1) we signed him to that bloated contract and (2) he STILL gets paid BY THE DODGERS while playing for someone else. That’s just sickening. He still doesn’t get it and oh, well, I’m not going to get into it. Talk about allowing some idiot to get under my skin, is, well, I’m not going to get into it.

And Kahli, those list of points you mentioned above, I DEFINITELY think that Joe should do #1: Close the clubhouse to the media and remind his players–with a few expletives thrown in for emphasis–that there are 100 games left and it’s time to stop coasting.

And just to close the book (for now) on Princess Druw, yes he and the Dodgers did mutually agree to that bloated contract, but doesn’t Princess Druw think he should live up to his end of the bargain and at least show up to ST not so overweight???

I’m right with you on that assessment, kahli, and I don’t want to berate too many of our guys at once. Right now I’m concentrating on Martin as not being up to his job, and that’s not a slump on his part – it’s a gradual and consistent deterioration of performance over now three seasons, I believe. I could easily add Kershaw to the category of not yet belonging in the major leagues. He projects the attitude too that he’s got it made and will be a star, but I don’t see any performance or application on his part to become one. Too casual in accepting lousy control and the results of his failure. At this level I’m not sure that he would survive any better at ABQ. Just a young kid who got too much too early and doesn’t know how to deal with it. Nobody dares to get into his face and tell him how putrid he is as a major leaguer. You can pick up guys with his record from any of the minor league contracts we signed with the likes of Milton, Vargas, etc.

And how many people would’ve love to have been a fly on the dugout wall, right behind Ausmus & Martin when they snapped that picture from the photo gallery? I know I would’ve. Russ looks so lost in that picture, Brad definitely has his work cut out for him to cheer him up. Heck, Brad has a better average then Russ does.

And messagebear, I agree with you assessment of Kershaw. I DON’T want Clayton to turn into another Edwin Jackson that (1) we rushed into the majors too soon, (2) couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag, and then we eventually (3) trade him for someone and then find out that he’s as good as everyone predicted he’d be; on another team. I still believe that Clayton will be the pitcher want him to become, eventually, but I don’t think having Clayton try to “figure it out” in the majors is the answer at this point. Our relievers may not be everything we want them to be, but they are being decimated by the lack of our starters not going long into games. Yes, I’ve seen a couple flashes of brilliance for Clayton, but bottom line, he’s hurting himself and the team by staying in the majors. I say send him back down to AAA to get his head straight.

Here’s how I view Kershaw and the whole issue of bringing high shoolers to professional baseball. First of all, I bet there are at least a dozen high school pitchers in Texas alone that can hit the radar gun at 95 and have a pretty decent curve ball or other second pitch. They typically overpower their high school batters to an extent whereby they just blow them away without having to finesse and really learn how to pitch in the process. Some go on to college and find that it’s a different game there. In college they would have a chance to strengthen the arm and extend their pitch count. Of course, nobody knows how many arm problems develop along the way the more their arms get used.

Once you get to professional ball, few players are really intimidated by 95 mph fastballs, unless the pitchers have developed control of where to throw them and how to offset them with off-speed stuff. Arm strain and problems will still come along when they try to go those extra innings required in professional ball. Look at how many arm problem draftees we’ve had, how many operations and kids trying to come back. We’re probably no worse in that respect than other teams – it’s just a gamble. It’ll be interesting to see how the phenom from SD State manages the situation, but Hochevar whom Dodger fans will remember has had his share of ups and downs.

I hope that Kershaw stays healthy and develops into a pitcher instead of a thrower, but I feel that he would have developed much better at the minor league level. I don’t see Honeycutt as a real teacher, and being a major league coach, he may not need to be. Guys who come up here should be reasonably ready. Growing up and using your head being thrown into early fame is another question, and I can’t really say how that affects Kersh because I don’t know him personally.

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